ABILENE, TX — BCFS Health and Human Services-Abilene hosted families from the Project HOPES (Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support) parenting education program for its Sock Hop Summer Kick Off at the Grace Museum in Abilene.
The event welcomed the summer season at the Grace’s Rock n’ Roll Diner with root beer floats and nachos, and featured music from rock n’ roll’s 1950s heyday. Attendees also enjoyed the museum’s children’s arts and sciences-focused interactive space.
“We always have something fun going on,” BCFS-Abilene Program Director Stacy Lee smiles, adding that the museum’s focus on child engagement and learning complements HOPES’s own efforts toward building community through strengthening families.
“The Grace Museum, with some of its interactive exhibits, is another great opportunity for parents and their children to learn in the same space,” she says. “It fits well with HOPES’s ideas of family and community.”
HOPES provides community-based programs for Big Country families with young children 0-5 years of age that help parents work through any barriers to a stable home environment. HOPES services include crisis intervention, parent support groups, basic needs support and transportation with flexible scheduling that allows families to attend regularly. HOPES promotes family and community through the concepts of early childhood education and child welfare and protection, and provides referrals to additional community family services like workforce assistance and financial literacy training.
At HOPES, we are engaging with families face to face to be able to get a glimpse of what they see daily,” Lee says. “We acknowledge that they want to be the best parents they can be for their children, and we‘re mutually thankful for the time we spend teaching and learning together.
Funding for BCFS Health and Human Services’ child abuse prevention programs is provided by the Prevention & Early Intervention Division of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. For more information, visit DiscoverBCFS.net/HOPES.
